When naming the new Coronavirus variant Omikron, the WHO skipped two letters in the Greek alphabet. Why? –
The new Corona variant Omikron causes headaches not only because of its spread, but also because of the name. At the weekend in Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) explained why it chose this Greek letter as the name for variant B.1.1.529 when it classified it as worrying: It was about avoiding misunderstandings and stigmatization.
Omikron instead of Ny and Xi
Some time ago the UN health authority started to name newly emerging variants one by one using the Greek alphabet. This was to prevent the places where the mutants appear for the first time from being used as a designation and linguistically pilloried.
Before Omikron it would have been the turn of the letters Ny and Xi. Ny, which means Nu in English, sounds too much like “new” (German: “neu”) and would therefore have been misleading, according to the WHO.
“Xi was not used because it is a common surname,” said the WHO. Virus names should not harm ethnic or regional groups, argued the UN organization. Although Xi is common in China and in countries with a Han Chinese population, it is not a very common name, at least in China. But there is one very important bearer of the name: the Chinese head of state Xi Jinping.
Source From: Stern
